Silents In The Library
by SevenForASecret
Summary: An AU retelling of Silence in the Library, with a different villain and a different summons as the reason for going. The Doctor gets a strange message that leads him and his companion Donna to The Library, where they encounter a new enemy and a new (relative to their position in the timestream) friend.
1. Chapter 1: Pleading

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Doctor Who. This is just for fun.

**Author's Note:** I swear I will finish my other fic, but this bunny just wouldn't die. So...new fic!

* * *

The Doctor was standing at the console, considering what sort of swim trunks to wear when it happened. The console room was empty, lucky for him. Donna was off in her room or in the wardrobe, doing whatever human women did to get ready to go to the beach.

The TARDIS gave an odd whir, a sound of complaint, rather like a hiccup. He immediately caressed a bit of the console. "What's wrong, dear?" He crooned softly. "You were doing so well lately."

The time machine whirred again, and then a speaker crackled to life. The voice that came over it was no voice he recognised, but that didn't mean anything. Perils of life as a time traveler, really. The voice was low, like she was whispering, at least at first, and sounded distinctly Scottish.

_"Help me. Please, I can't. I can't see. Somebody help me. I can't see."_

The Doctor's eyes furrowed. It wasn't unusual for the TARDIS to pick up distress signals, but this wasn't quite like before. He didn't call it up, it just came through on it's own. "What's that you've picked up?" He asked curiously, trying to pinpoint the location. As he pressed buttons and levers, though, the message continued.

"_It's dark. So dark. I don't know where I am, but we haven't left The Library, Please, can anybody hear me?"_

"I can hear you." The Doctor said, even though he knew the woman speaking couldn't hear him. He moved faster, narrowing the signal down to human, before his hearts skipped a beat.

"_Doctor, are you out there? Can you hear me? Doctor? Oh, God. Please, please, Doctor, just get me out of this."_

The Doctor forced himself to swallow and bashed the speaker with the hammer when it went dead. "We're coming, whoever you are." He swore.

Then he bounded through the hallways. "Donna!" He shouted to his companion. "Change of plans! We're going to The Library!"

* * *

"Books, Donna. People never really stop loving books." The Doctor enthused as they walked through the library. "Fifty first century. By now you've got holovids, direct to brain downloads, fiction mist, but you need the smell. The smell of books, Donna. Deep breath." He took a deep breath himself, trying to find out as much as he could. "The Library. So big it doesn't need a name. Just a great big _The_."

Donna did not look enthused. She had been promised a beach, not a trip to the stacks, thank you very much. Still, she couldn't help but be amazed by the scope of it all. "It's like a city."

"It's a world. Literally, a world." The Doctor corrected, enjoying the place even if he was here on a rescue mission. "The whole core of the planet is the index computer. Biggest hard drive ever. And up here, every book ever written. Whole continents of Jeffrey Archer, Bridget Jones, Monty Python's Big Red Book. Brand new editions, specially printed." He bounced on the balls of his feet, holding up a finger to test the temperature, direction and face of the wind. "We're near the equator, so this must be..._biographies_! I love biographies."

"Yeah, very you, always a death at the end." Donna observed, in her rather cynical way.

"You need a good death. Without death, there'd only be comedies. Dying gives us size." Considering he had done it nine times now, he thought himself rather the expert on the subject. He let out a sound of protest as his companion picked up a book that had been discarded on the railing. "Heya, Spoilers!"

"What?" Donna said, rather annoyed. She was missing out on a beach to see a library, and he was taking the first book she picked up away from her? That wasn't fair.

"These books are from your future. You don't want to read ahead. Spoil all the surprises. Like peeking at the end." The Doctor explained, deliberately holding it away from her.

Donna put her hands on her hips. "Isn't travelling with you one big spoiler?" She asked, trying to make sense of it all.

"I try to keep you away from major plot developments." The Doctor defended himself, even as he realised the oddity he was standing in the middle of. "Which, to be honest, I seem to be very bad at, because you know what? This is the biggest library in the universe. So where is everyone? It's silent." He hurried over to the nearest computer station, bringing out the sonic screwdriver.

"The library?" Donna confirmed, following him at a small distance.

"The planet. The whole planet." The Doctor corrected, tapping away at keys.

Donna didn't like the sound of that, so she went for a slightly rational answer she knew was probably not going to be right. "Maybe it's a Sunday."

The Doctor took her query seriously. "No, I never land on Sundays. Sundays are boring."

Donna made a face and lowered her voice to a stage whisper. "Well, maybe everyone's really, _really_ quiet."

"Yeah, maybe. But they'd still show up on the system." The Doctor said, still tapping away at the computer.

Donna was fed up with the mystery and the change in plans. "Doctor, why are we here? Really, why?"

The Doctor glanced up, and did what he did best. He lied. "Oh, you know, just passing."

Donna believed that as much as she believed her Granddad would give up his meat pies. "No, seriously. It was all let's hit the beach, then suddenly we're in a library. Why?"

The Doctor didn't answer. He didn't quite know how to answer. Instead, he focused on his latest discovery. "Scanning for life forms. If I do a scan looking for your basic humanoids. You know, your book readers, few limbs and a face, apart from us, I get over two hundred in this quadrant." He gestures to the screen which had climbed up to two-hundred and two.

"What like, here?" Donna asked. "In this section? But there's nothing here. There's no one."

"Exactly." The Doctor observed. "Two hundred life forms here, and not a sound. Silence in the library."

Donna froze, looking over in a corner. "Doctor?" She said, voice rising.

"What's wrong, Donna?" The Doctor said, putting a hand on her shoulder. "Are you all right?"

Donna looked over at him, and her eyes seemed to clear. "Yeah, fine."

"You're certain?" The Doctor said.

"Of course." Donna replied, shrugging off his hand with ease, shaking her head to dispel the sudden feeling of unease as something broke the silence.

"Welcome!"


	2. Chapter 2: Paradoxical

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Doctor Who.

**Author's Note: **Thanks to everyone for the reviews. They really made my night. :)

* * *

Donna and The Doctor headed back to the room where they had parked the TARDIS, where they thought they had heard the computerised voice coming from. Donna was amazed to see the vaguely human-shaped, statue that reminded her of an art nouveau vase move, the top part spinning to show a very lifelike face. "I am Courtesy Node seven-one-zero-slash-aqua. Please enjoy the Library and respect the personal access codes of all your fellow readers, regardless of species or hygiene taboo."

"That face, it looks real." Donna said, half-wanting some science-y explanation for once.

The Doctor made a face, as if he was thinking, and then brushed off the statement. "Yeah, don't worry about it." He had a feeling Donna's twenty-first century sensibilities regarding the dead would not take the fifty-first's very well.

Donna wasn't so easily put off. The fact that he wasn't going off on an explanation, even a short one, was odd and therefore worrying. "A statue with a real face, though? It's a hologram or something, isn't it?"

"No, but really, it's fine." The Doctor replied very quickly. He was saved from having to explain by the node.

"Additional. There follows a brief message from the Head Librarian for your urgent attention. It has been edited for tone and content by a Felman Lux Automated Decency Filter. Message follows. Run. For God's sake, run. No way is safe. I can't remember...Silence will fall... Oh, they're here. Argh. Slarg. Snick. Message ends. Please switch off your mobile comm units for the comfort of other readers." There was something disturbing about the way it read the message in an almost cheerful monotone.

The Doctor was perplexed, but he knew it had to have something to do with the distress call. "So that's why we're here. Any other messages, same date stamp?" He patently ignored the look Donna gave him.

"One additional message. This message carries a Felman Lux coherency warning of five zero eleven." The node replied.

"Yeah, yeah, fine, fine, fine. Just play it." The Doctor said, speaking over the warning. Stupid fifty-first century automated censors.

"Message follows. Don't look away. For God's sake, remember, if you want to live, when you see them, don't look away. Message ends."

This sounded too much like an old enemy for the Doctor's comfort. "Donna?" He said keeping his voice even as he looked around for anything resembling angels.

"Yeah?" Donna asked, feeling that odd creeping feeling over her skin.

"If you see an angel statue, don't look away." The Doctor said, scanning the empty room yet again. "They can't move if you're looking at them."

"Angels?" Donna said, voice rising. "What's angels got to do with anything? Is this another robot Santa thing?" The Doctor didn't answer, leading them into the stacks, and as much as Donna trusted the daft spaceman, he was going to start talking or she was walking straight back to the TARDIS. Well, not really, but she could pretend. The daft alien would probably get himself killed without her. "So, We weren't just in the neighbourhood."

The Doctor turned to face his understandably peeved companion. She had been looking forward to a beach, and he had pulled her into a library full of mysteries that weren't in books. "Yeah, I kind of, sort of lied a bit. The TARDIS picked up a plea for help."

"Who's it from?" Donna asked, processing this information, and losing a bit of her anger. Cries for help were understandable.

"No idea." The Doctor replied, with half a shrug, looking about the silent library.

Okay, that was slightly more irritating. Donna let out a puff of air. The man had to know he couldn't save everyone, answer every distress call in the universe. "So why did we come here? Why did you..."

The Doctor noticed that it was suddenly getting darker, and interrupted his companion's well-deserved lecture. "Donna!"

"What?" Dona asked. and then saw the lights from the way they had come going out. "What's happening?"

The Doctor had only one answer as he grabbed her hand. "_Run!"_ They headed for the nearest door, but he couldn't seem to get it open. He tried to find a setting on his screwdriver as quickly as he could, but it wasn't quite quick enough. "Come on!"

Donna was approaching irate, as she was literally being chased by darkness. "What, is it locked?"

"Jammed. The wood's warped." The Doctor said, as he tried to force it.

Donna's hands fluttered as the darkness got closer. "Well, sonic it. Use the thingy!"

The Doctor was doing his best, and his tone was a bit short as he answered. "I can't, it's wood!"

"What, it doesn't do wood?" Donna asked in disbelief. His magic screwdriver could do a million things, but couldn't do the one thing a screwdriver was supposed to do? See if she ever let him bleep her again.

"Hang on, hang on. I can vibrate the molecules, fry the bindings. I can shatterline the interface..." The Doctor said, in a last ditch effort.

Donna rolled her eyes. "Oh, get out of the way!" She kicked the door open and the two rushed into the room. She watched as The Doctor jammed a book into the handles to prevent whatever it was from chasing them from doing the same thing.

The Doctor took a deep breath and shook his head. "Nice door skills, Donna."

Donna resisted the urge to snort, remembering the time when she had to kick in her own door because one of her pathetic exes had changed the locks. Her _own_ locks! "Yeah, well, you know, boyfriends. Sometimes you need the element of surprise. What was that? What was after us? I mean, did we just run away from a power cut?"

"Possibly." The Doctor admitted. He was beginning to doubt his theory of the Weeping Angels. They were able to drain lights, but there was something different about this, but if it wasn't the angels, what was it?

"Are we safe here?" Donna asked, nervously. Darkness couldn't be stopped by a book in a door, could it?

"Of course we're safe." The Doctor lied, for her peace of mind. "There's a little shop."

Suddenly, another node turned, this one with a male face. "Attention: The library is breached. Others are coming."

Donna was instantly on alert, and looked at The Doctor, who shrugged. So, she went up to the node. "Others? What do you mean, others?"

The Doctor leaned back against a desk. "That's barely more than a speak your weight machine, it can't help you."

"So why's it got a face?" Donna asked.

Before The Doctor could answer, the node let the flesh out of the bag, apparently thinking Donna was still talking to it. Either that or it wanted to get the Time Lord in trouble. "This flesh aspect was donated by Mark Chambers on the occasion of his death."

"It's a real face?" Donna asked, a note of hysteria entering her voice, which surprised The Doctor slightly. He had expected anger.

The node answered her, possibly winning the award for the worst at helping. "It has been actualised individually for you from the many facial aspects saved to our extensive flesh banks. Please enjoy."

"It chose me a dead face it thought I'd like? That statue's got a real dead person's face on it." Donna asked, the hysterical note in her voice rising further.

"It's the fifty first century. That's basically like donating a park bench." The Doctor replied, trying to keep her calm.

"It's donating a _face!_" Donna said, a bit shrilly to her own ears. Didn't he see what was wrong with this?

The Doctor was distracted by something he saw moving past the plate-glass window in the shop. "No, wait, what are you?" He called out.

Donna stared at him in confusion, glancing behind her. "Doctor, what are you talking to?"

"What?" The Doctor asked, looking back at her. "Did you say something?"

The node apparently took this as instruction. "Reminder. The library has been breached. Others are coming. Reminder. The library has been breached. Others are coming. Reminder. The library has been breached. Others are coming."

As if in answer, another door blasted open, and seven figures entered, all dressed in black suits. The lead man lowered his silver gun slowly, and spoke in a deep, gravelly voice. "Doctor?" He looked over his shoulder. "Amy!"

The group behind him parted, to allow an eighth figure to step up from behind him, tapping on a small tablet. "What is it, Canton?" She looked up, and saw The Doctor. "Doctor? What happened to having to stopping a paradox?" She trailed off as she caught sight of Donna. "Or...this _was_ the paradox."


	3. Chapter 3: Pompeian Nun

It took Donna a moment before she recognised the girl. "You!" She said, pointing angrily. "You tried to stab me!"

The other redhead recoiled in surprise, eyes going wide. "I did what?"

"What?" The Doctor asked, looking between the two women. He had recognised the voice as the one in the message, but he had never seen her before, at least not that he could recall. "When?"

"She was one of those creepy Pompeian nuns!" Donna said, stubbornly. "The ones that wanted to sacrifice me!"

"Donna, they had their faces covered with white clay and painted with..." The Doctor replied, trying to reassure his companion, the mysterious woman, however, saw fit to interrupt.

"I was?" Amy asked, laughing in amusement. "Love a Roman, me." She smiled at them. "I promise I won't actually let you die, Donna, no matter what daft cover I'm under." She nodded at The Doctor. "Besides, you know how he gets if he doesn't get a chance to save someone now and then."

"Amy, I hate to break up the reunion, but we don't have time for this." Canton said, sounding slightly irritated.

"Rule 408: Time is not the boss of you." Amy said seriously, tapping him on the nose. "But let's go ahead and release the troops."

The Doctor reacted in surprise to hearing one of his rules repeated by a stranger. He recoiled, finally understanding, in some way, what was happening. "Ye..bu..who are you?"

"Pond, Amy Pond." Amy said in her best Sean Connery impression, flipping her hair a little before turning back to the perplexed agents she and Canton had brought with them to the library. She turned serious, all the previous teasing disappearing. "All right, we know why we're here." She said simply. "We are trying to determine what The Silence is after, and why they've chased everyone away from The Library." She held up her hand. "If you see one, press the recorder in your palm and speak into it. It will relay the message directly to your headquarters, and cause it to blink. Take census with the grease pencils, tallies of five. Understand?"

There was a collective yes, and Amy turned away, allowing Canton to give them search patterns. He was better at that. She focused instead on The Doctor and Donna. "So, what brought you here? Or was The TARDIS just being herself?"

The Doctor looked at Donna and then looked back at the mysterious woman. "Uh, well, we picked up a distress call...what exactly is going on here?"

Amy nodded a little, as if it were the most normal thing in the world. "We've reports that The Silence have invaded here."

"What kind of rubbish are you talking?" Donna snapped, characteristically annoyed by the cryptic remarks she didn't understand. "Silence invaded? It's a library!"

"This is why I like her." Amy told The Doctor with a grin. She turned to look at both of them. "The Silence is a religious order, with the majority of it being populated by aliens who refer to themselves as Silents. As long as you see one, you can remember everything, the moment you look away, you forget you've ever seen one. They make people do their bidding through hypnotic suggestion." She slowed down, looking at the two other time-travelers. "We must really be out of sync if you don't know about The Silence."

"So...you've seen me before." The Doctor asked, just to confirm.

Amy nodded, but there was a brief flash of hurt in her eyes. "Ever since I was a little girl, and you crashed into my backyard."

Donna felt suddenly out of the loop. "What about me?" Donna asked. "If you know him, you must know me." She wasn't about to leave the TARDIS and go back to her normal life, defined only by how many words she could type a minute.

"Who could ever forget Donna Noble?" Amy replied, not really answering, but it would do for the moment.

"How do you plan on fighting The Silence if you can't remember you've seen them?" The Doctor asked, changing the subject.

Amy held up her palm and clicked something, causing a bright red light to flash. "Nanorecorder, you press it, speak what you see into it, and then play it back." She gestured to the team who had dispersed. "The soldiers have their own, directs them directly to UNIT, if they're compromised, the transmission ceases. Mine and Canton's came from you - they're linked mentally to us, and default to live, rerouting to the TARDIS if something happens to us." She handed a black grease pencil to both of them. "If you see one, make a tally mark on your skin, so we get some idea of how many are here."

The Doctor realised that's what must have happened. The TARDIS picked up a live signal from Amy's nanorecorder on this planet and took him there to save her - she just showed up a little early. He took the pencil, but his mind was already three steps ahead. Maybe he could stop the distress call from ever happening.


End file.
